It might have started with Paradise, or perhaps Party, but by now many of the online poker rooms have side games of Blackjack going on. I had gotten used to that when Ultimate Bet walked in and blew the door wide open with their "elimination blackjack". Add that to the Cryptologic poker rooms that offer a tournament game called Holdem Blackjack and you have a lot of "21" action going on in the poker scene alone.
And none of that takes into account the dozens of versions of the game that are being offered at the online casinos. We can't forget that they deal the game live in the brick and mortar world as well. So, with so much going on, and so many chances for poker players to cross over, I couldn't resist putting together a Blackjack Guide here at Unknown Poker.
Single Player Strategy
The first thing, besides knowing the rules, is understanding the
strategy to black jack. Unlike some other casino games, there right and wrong decisions in blackjack have been figured out. And, the correct plays have all been charted in something called a strategy card.
Those plays will not guarantee you will win the hand. Actually, they dont' even guarantee you will win over the long haul, but they will show you how to cut down the house edge as low as it will go. And in blackjack, that means getting it to less than one percent.
Armed with that kind of skill, you can parlay your time at the blackjack tables into some decent comps at the land-based casinos, or possibly put your time into taking advantages of some welcome bonuses offered by the online casinos.
Once you've become comfortable with playing the game itself, against the dealer and no one else, you can move your blackjack energies into the hot new realm of 21, elimination blackjack.
Tournament Black Jack
If you've been watching the Game Show Network, or even CBS, you may have seen this new style of blackjack being played. In an elimination blackjack setting, players play both the house, and each other.
In order to thin the field of contestants in one of these tournaments, certain hands are designated as "elimination hands". At the end of an elimination hand, the player with the least amount of chips is knocked out of the tournament. This, changes everything!
All of a sudden, the amount of the bets that the other players make is as important to you as your cards. This new twist has really breathed new life back into the game of blackjack. If you're interested, they deal elimination blackjack tournaments at Ultimate Bet.
This page last updated January 8th, 2007.
